KABEI: Our Mother
Directed by Yoji Yamada
Japan, 133 minutes, Japanese with English Subtitles
Drama/Foreign
SAT APR 18, 5:15pm; THU APR 23, 6:30pm
This old-fashioned wartime melodrama tinged with sweet moments of childhood and set in 1940 Tokyo is prolific director Yoji Yamada’s 80th feature film. The peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly implodes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested for thought crimes and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo, determined to maintain her courage and cheerful resolve, works frantically from morning to night to care for the household and bring up her two daughters. When Yamazaki, an old student of Shigeru’s, arrives on their doorstep hoping to help prove Shigeru’s innocence, he becomes a beacon during their trying days, offering some lightness and joy during the family’s trying times. Interspersed with the treasured correspondence between a loving husband to his wife and a doting father to his daughters, Kabei is adapted from the best-selling autobiography by Teruyo Nogami and its eternal message for peace spans time.
Selected Filmography: Love and Honor (06), The Hidden Blade (04), The Twilight Samurai (02), My Sons (91)
